IV 111th CONGRESS 2d Session H. RES. 1590 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 30, 2010 Ms. Giffords (for herself, Mr. Lamborn, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, Mr. Bonner, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Barrow, Mrs. Davis of California, Mr. Jones, Mr. Sablan, Mr. Thornberry, Mr. Owens, Mrs. Myrick, Mr. Kissell, Mr. Michaud, Mr. Garamendi, Mr. Aderholt, Ms. Kilpatrick of Michigan, Mr. Spratt, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Wittman, Mr. Turner, Ms. Shea-Porter, and Mr. Heinrich) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services RESOLUTION Recognizing the 150th anniversary of the Army Signal Corps.

Whereas the Army Signal Corps consists of more than 65,000 officers and enlisted soldiers; Whereas the Army Signal Corps is responsible for all systems of communication for the Army; Whereas Major Albert James Myer first conceived the idea of a separate, trained professional military signal service in 1860; Whereas, on June 21, 1860, the Army adopted Major Myer’s wigwag communications system to form the Army Signal Corps; Whereas the first Army Signal Corps methods were tested and proven during Civil War combat by using a single flag and a two-element code in daylight and torches at night; Whereas in March 1863, Congress authorized a regular Army Signal Corps for the duration of the Civil War, and approximately 2,900 officers and enlisted soldiers served in the Signal Corps during the Civil War; Whereas by 1867, the electric telegraph, along with visual signaling, became the responsibility of the Army Signal Corps; Whereas during the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Army Signal Corps played an integral role in victory with the employment of visual signaling, telephone and telegraph communications, combat photography, and balloons for intelligence gathering; Whereas the Army Signal Corps introduced the first wireless telegraph in the Western Hemisphere shortly after the Spanish-American War, constructing the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System; Whereas, on August 1, 1907, an Aeronautical Division was established within the office of the Chief Signal Officer, which lead to the Wright Brothers conducting test flights of the Army’s first airplane build to Army Signal Corps specifications in 1908; Whereas Chief Signal Officer George Owen Squier worked closely with private industry to perfect radio tubes while creating a major Signal Laboratory at Camp Alfred Vail, New Jersey; Whereas during World War I, women switchboard operators were sworn into the Army Signal Corps; Whereas Colonel William Blair, a pioneer in radar and director of the Army Signal Corps laboratories at Fort Monmouth, patented the first Army radar, demonstrated in 1937; Whereas innovations by the Army Signal Corps in tactical frequency modulation radio radar became the most significant communications development of World War II; Whereas in 1941, the Army Signal Corps developed the first FM backpack radio, the SCR-300, providing front-line troops with reliable, static-free communications for the first time; Whereas the Army Signal Corps played a crucial role in documenting evidence of Nazi atrocities and the Holocaust, with a number of these images later transmitted to news agencies in America, helping to inform the world about the horrors of Nazism and the plight of concentration camp prisoners; Whereas in Project Diana in 1946, the Army Signal Corps successfully bounced radar signals off the moon, helping pave the way for space communications; Whereas during the Korean War, the very-high frequency radio of the Army Signal Corps became the tactical communications backbone throughout the combat zone; Whereas during the Korean War and Vietnam War, the Army Signal Corps operated Officer Candidate Schools, initially at Fort Monmouth in 1950–1953, which graduated 1,234 officers, and at Fort Gordon in 1965–1968, which produced 2,213 signal officers; Whereas, on December 18, 1958, the Army Signal Corps, with Air Force assistance, launched its first communications satellite, Project SCORE, demonstrating the feasibility of worldwide communications in delayed and real time by means of simple active satellite relays; Whereas during the Vietnam War, the requirement for high-quality telephone and message circuits led to the Army Signal Corps’ deployment of troposphereic-scatter radio, as well as developing the SYNCOM satellite communications service and a commercial fixed-stations system known as the Integrated Wideband Communications System; Whereas during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991, computers and satellites greatly enhanced the ability of commanders to coordinate their forces; Whereas in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army Signal Corps automate, transmit, and receive voice and data information to keep the Army informed and ready to respond to any contingency; Whereas the soldiers of the Army Signal Corps serve in both combat brigades and functional units from the foxhole to the White House; Whereas the Army Signal Corps’ 9th Signal Command (NETCOM) located at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, operates and defends Army computer networks; Whereas the Army Signal Corps’ 5th Signal Command is a European-based tactical and strategic communications organization specializing in command and control in support of theater-limited, joint-forces and combined forces activities; Whereas the Army Signal Corps’ 335th Signal Command manages the telecommunications infrastructure for Southwest Asia in support of USARCENT/Third Army and CENTCOM during peacetime and contingency operations; Whereas the soldiers of the Army Signal Corps skillfully handle the dynamics and professional hurdles that are so familiar to the Corps; Whereas, after 150 years, the mission of the Army Signal Corps remains to provide and manage communications and information systems support for the command and control of the Armed Forces; and Whereas the Army Signal Corps consistently carries out its mission with the utmost efficiency and effectiveness, helping to ensure the safety and situational awareness of members of the Armed Forces in harm’s way: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives— (1)recognizes the 150th anniversary of the Army Signal Corps; (2)recognizes the valuable, historic, and continued contribution of the Army Signal Corps; (3)honors the members of the Army Signal Corps; and (4)honors the members of the Army Signal Corps who have perished in pursuit of the cause of freedom.